Ramalinga Raju was born on September 16, 1954. His father B. Satyanarayana Raju, was a wealthy farmer. Ramalinga Raju graduated from Andhra Loyola College, Vijayawada with a Bachelor of Commerce (B.Com) Degree.
He went to the US for his Masters in Business Administration (MBA) from Ohio State University. This was the time when he developed interest in IT and realized the fact that the outsourcing Industry in India will witness a huge boom.
After coming back to India he entered into textiles and real estate businesses. In 1987 he started Satyam Computers with only 20 employees. In 1992 the company went public, theIPO was over subscribed 17 times. This was the same year when they got their first off shore contract from Tractor Maker John Deere and Co. from the US.
Over the next few years Satyam bagged several contracts, mainly from US companies. In 1999 Satyam Infoway (Sify) was listed on NASDAQ. Sify was later sold to entrepreneurRaju Vegesna. In 2001 Satyam was listed on the NYSE. In 2006 Satyam’s revenue crossed the billion dollar mark. Satyam went on to become one of the top IT companies in Indiahaving more than 50000 employees working in both India and Abroad.
During his career, Ramalinga Raju won several awards including Ernst and Young Entrepreneur of the Year for Sevices in 1999, IT Man of the Year by Dataquest in 2000 and Asia BusinessLeader Award-Corporate Citizen of the Year in 2002.
In December 2008 Satyam’s share prices fell when it failed to buy Maytas Infra and Maytas Properties. Situation worsened when the World Bank Banned Satyam for 8 years for providing “improper benefits” to the bank staff. In January 2009, Ramalinga Raju stepped down as the Chairman of Satyam after admitting to major financial fraud that had been going on for years.
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